E is for Edge
by nicol-leoraine
Summary: Nick and Hank out on a case. No fairy tales involved. Gen.


**A/N:** Written for the alphabet_soup challenge over at LJ. Prompted and beta-read by Tania.

**E is for Edge**

Nick hated heights. He learned about his dislike one cold winter afternoon, in the middle of a chase. He and Hank were trying to bring Kyle Richards in for interrogation on suspicion of murder. He was a young, shaky guy with a record of drug use and distribution. The case was pretty simple. They found the body of a drug dealer, stabbed and dumped in an underground garage. While the murder weapon was missing, CCTV showed them a man leaving the scene shortly after the estimated time of death. A hoodie covered his face, but they saw him touch the door handle on his way out. Forensics recovered the prints and the computer matched them to a previously convicted felon. It took some time to find out where he was currently living, but a little legwork took care of that too. Having the address in their hands, Nick and Hank decided it was time to bring the guy in.

What they didn't really count on was being intercepted by a noisy neighbor in the hallway. By the time they kicked out the door to Richards' apartment, all they found was an open window leading to the fire escape.

"Damn it!" Hank cursed as he saw a foot vanishing up the fire escape. "What idiot runs for the roof when he could've just as easily gone down and vanished on a busy street?" He grumbled as he pulled himself through the window.

"Maybe one that would leave his fingerprints at the murder scene?" Nick chanced a reply and got a frown in response. "Anyways, where would the fun be in a simple arrest?" Nick asked as he followed Hank out and up the fire escape. Hank snorted.

"Yeah, where would the fun be…"

Nick smirked but didn't comment. The cold wind whipped his face and every word allowed precious heat to escape. Not to mention that scaling a fire escape wearing so many layers was anything but easy. It also took some concentration not to slip, as the rods were pretty much covered in ice. The way up took them longer than they would've liked, but Nick reassured himself that their suspect must've been having just as hard a time to move. Maybe more so, as he seemed to have left without his coat.

When they finally reached the roof, there was no sign of Richards.

"Now what?" Hank asked disgruntled. Nick walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. There was an adjoining building, one floor lower where Richards could've gone. The problem was that there was a building on the other side too.

"I guess we'll have to split up."

"Fifteen minutes. If you don't find him, we meet up down by the car, okay? And be careful, it's pretty slippery."

"Yes mom," Nick replied with a smirk, and then started looking for the best way down. He found a ladder which led to the neighboring building, and as he looked over at Hank, he saw that his partner had found a similar one on the other side.

He made it down without incident, although his leg slipped once on a piece of ice. Pulling out his gun, Nick started searching the second roof. He found a door into the building but it was locked up, so Richards couldn't have fled from there. Looking around though, Nick could see no hiding places. He either picked the wrong roof, or the suspect had managed to find a way out. Sighing, Nick was about ready to give up and go after Hank, hoping he had had more luck, when he heard a muffled noise. Tensing, Nick tried to identify the source. It sounded like someone was trying to force something open. Nick headed towards the noise, which grew more and more frantic. He now heard muffled cursing as well. Reaching the edge of the roof, Nick finally saw their suspect on another building, trying to pry open a door, using a pipe as a crowbar.

"Hey! Police! Don't move!" Nick shouted, aiming his weapon at Richards in the hopes he would listen. Even in the diminishing daylight, he could see that there was no possible escape, and by Richards' frantic attempts at opening the door, he knew that too. The building Richards was on was the last in the row of residential buildings. The industrial area started just across the road and the closest building was maybe fifteen yards from them. He was trapped. But that didn't mean he would give up. Richards ignored Nick and resumed his fight with the door. To Nick's horror it looked as if it might relent in the end. There was no way around it. Nick didn't have a straight shot at Richards, since he was partially hidden behind a wall and Nick didn't want to shoot the guy anyway. But he couldn't just watch him escape.

Pulling out his cell phone, Nick quickly dialed Hank and told him he should get to the building from below, so he could block Richards' way if Nick couldn't get to him in time. He hung up and

looked down below. He was on the top of a four story building, and there was maybe a nine foot gap between the two buildings. Cursing Richards, and himself as well, Nick backed up and took a deep breath. He could do it. He _had_ done it before, jumped eight foot across, without breaking a sweat. Hearing a crack as the door finally gave way to Richards' attempts, Nick let out the breath he was holding and took off.

Under normal circumstances Nick could have jumped that far without trouble. But there was an ice patch he didn't see and his foot slipped just as he pushed off. Nick knew he made a mistake, knew his feet would never reach the opposite roof. His body reacted instinctively and he twisted in the air, changing his body's trajectory slightly. While his feet passed the landing, Nick's hands shot out and he managed to grab the ledge, and his body hit the wall. Teeth clicking at the impact, Nick yelped but he managed to keep hold.

For a moment everything went gray and Nick thought he'd never breathe again, but the pain in his ribs brought him back to reality pretty fast, which was good. It wouldn't do to pass out and fall. Blinking, Nick tried to make sense of his situation. He was dazed and it didn't help that the first thing he did was look down.

"God," Nick whined and closed his eyes against the dizziness and nausea. It was a long way down. He needed to get up on the roof. There was no way he would end up as a splat down there. He'd seen several crime scenes where the victim had fallen from that height, and it was never pretty. No way he would make Juliette deal with something like that. He had to pull himself up. Only problem was, he couldn't. The muscles in his arms seemed to be locked up, stiff as rock. He might've pulled something when he caught the ledge, but he definitely bruised or broke a rib when he hit the wall. Which meant his upper body was totally useless, sans the fact that the locked up muscles were holding him from a nasty fall to his death.

"Help? Somebody?" He called out, but his voice was weak and there was no one to hear him anyway. He'd seen Richards vanish inside the door before his foot slipped. While he was sure Hank was already cuffing up the guy, it didn't help his situation. He was hanging off the edge of a building. Logically he knew he only needed to wait for Hank to realize something was wrong and come looking for him, but he wasn't sure he had that much time. He was starting to have trouble breathing, and black spots were appearing in his vision.

_Come on... breathe, _he thought, trying to coach himself into calming down. It was just a panic attack, nothing else. He was just scared. And wasn't that ironic? As a Grimm he faced down monsters from fairy tales. He fought an Ogre, was almost killed by a Spinatod and he was friends with a Blutbad. Yet he was scared of a little height. Ridiculous.

Somehow thinking about the other part of his life, the world that no one else saw, helped Nick, and he started calming down. His breath slowed and the black spots were pushed to the background. He could do this; he just had to hang on. Literally.

Nick wasn't sure how much time had passed since the moment he'd jumped, but it seemed like an eternity before he heard movement above and Hank's voice calling his name.

"I'm... here," he called out, his voice breathy but loud enough. Nick looked up just as Hank's face appeared over the ledge and he managed to give a weak grin. "Hey."

"Hey yourself," Hank spoke, blanching at a look below. "Do you like the view from here, or are you just trying to leave all the work to me?" He joked even as he grabbed Nick's forearms and started pulling him up.

It took some effort and several pained grunts from Nick, but finally his knees touched the roof and he collapsed on the floor, barely restraining himself from kissing it.

"Never again," he mumbled, and then looked at Hank. "Thanks man."

"You're welcome. By the way, didn't I tell you to be careful?" Nick snorted then grimaced in pain. "You okay?" Hank asked, suddenly serious.

"I think I busted a rib. Or two," Nick admitted, making no effort to get up. With a grunt, Hank pulled out his phone and called in that they would need an ambulance. When he finished, he patted Nick on the head affectionately.

"You know, partner, I figured it out."

"What?" Nick asked, confused.

"It's payback for telling you to be careful. You had to get yourself banged up. Now you'll get to spend the night in the ER doped up on all the good stuff, while I'll have to haul Richards' ass back to the station and do all the paperwork. Sneaky."

"Yeah, that was my plan all along," Nick laughed out. "Richards... You caught him?"

"Sure I did. The guy practically flew into my arms. You know if you'd just waited a few more minutes, you could've spared yourself the pain."

"But then I would be stuck doing paperwork with you, instead of hanging off an edge," Nick said, pausing to take a breath. "And what would be the fun in that?"

Hank gave a laugh, and then shook his head, a sudden spark in his eyes making Nick wary.

"Well, it looks like you'll have plenty of fun explaining this to Juliette. I'm sure she'll be happy to know what lengths you are willing to go to escape paperwork."

"You wouldn't," Nick breathed out, horrified. Hank just winked at him and stood up.

"I think I can hear the ambulance. Maybe I should show them the way. Stay put."

"Hank? Come on, we're partners. Hank!"

**The End**


End file.
